We’ve seen a great many applications introduce stickers in the past. Viber introduced stickers back in October while Facebook did the same in November and imo.im later followed suit. Now BlackBerry Messenger has introduced stickers of its own, albeit in beta form.
Selling stickers is just the first step in app monetization for the Canadian company, and selling ads is another possible route BlackBerry might likely take in the future.
Stickers are a way for BlackBerry to monetize BBM outside of selling ads
Stickers replace traditional emoticons in calling and messaging apps and are more colorful and expressive than traditional emoticons. BBMers will be able to find the stickers in the new BBM Shop, which is currently in beta.
Other applications — namely Kik, WeChat, Tango, LINE, and KakaoTalk — have also introduced gaming as a way to increase engagement among their users, as well as a way to increase profits. BBM hasn’t made any indication that games will become a part of BBM in the future, but it’s certainly only one of a number of routes the company might feel inclined to take as the OTT competition increases.